Bad Luck Continues: The Great July Itch
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
I hope everyone had a wonderful Fourth of July! I celebrated the country’s birthday by enjoying a shrimp boil and some peach cobbler. That was the highlight of my June and July thus far due to a stint of bad luck. Aside from my cat, Janet, going missing, my skinned knee and my twisted ankle – all of which I previously documented here – I am unhappy to report that since then, my laptop broke down, I got poison ivy and I stepped in a nest of red bugs.
Most of the things that happened to me were either a natural part of life or to be expected after a while, but the poison ivy/red bug combo really added a biblical touch to the whole thing. When will it stop, God? Is this what Job felt like? The red bug bites better be the big finale in this fireworks display of torture and inconvenience.
On a brighter note, post-July Fourth is always fun in the Valley because there is literally not a single, solitary thing to do except focus on getting very serious about the Watermelon Carnival. It’s time to brainstorm decoration ideas, cut a watermelon into small cubes to be frozen for the Watermelon Carnival to-go cup margs and get your festive but climatically sensible red and green outfit together.
If you haven’t gathered your watermelon placemats, your watermelon throw pillows, your watermelon house flag, your watermelon door wreath, your watermelon platter, your watermelon chip bowl, your other but slightly smaller watermelon chip bowl, your watermelon pitcher, your watermelon drinking glasses and your watermelon beverage napkins then now is the time. The last thing you want to do is wake up on the hot, bright morning of the Watermelon Carnival and be unable to locate your watermelon visor or your watermelon church fan!
When I say there’s not a lot to do here in July except prepare for the Watermelon Carnival, I’m speaking strictly for a useless person such as myself. There’s been a lot of non-watermelon-related activity in the streets of Water Valley lately – specifically construction and repair work!
I look forward to seeing what gets planted in the new street bump-outs in front of the BTC Grocery. Knowing BTC’s owner Alexe, she might insist on a fully functioning cornfield.
And good ol’ Pocket Park has had a flurry of demolition activity this past week, as well. This project is one that will eventually result in a full overhaul that we’ll all be happy about.
Most fun to see are the brand-new power poles going up on the southern stretch of town across from Sonic. Man, never have our current electrical poles looked so rinky-dink as they do standing next to their new, exemplary electrical pole twins that have been installed four feet to the left of each old one. It looks like a century of time has passed in those 48 inches between the poles. It’s like seeing the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt standing beside Superman.
I hope everyone stays cool in this hot weather and invests some money in calamine lotion stock because I alone may make you rich.
